Dear interested customer,

In the following, we will guide you through several interesting and
surprising details about the stone masonry and stone carving techniques
that have been developed over the generations by those living in the
Makabe area in Ibaraki Prefecture.
 
You can read about:
- the location of the quarry at Tsukuba mountain quarry and techniques how
to quarry the rock
- an introduction to several techniques and tools for stone carving
- the quality
- back ground information about the shapes several of stone figures
 
 
Mount Tsukuba
 
 
The history of stone masonry in Makabe
In Japan, as in so many other parts of the world, stone/granite has been used for centuries
for building houses, temples, monuments, etc. However, in Japan during the last few centuries,
stone has been used mainly for castle and temple construction. In ancient times, the mining
process was quite difficult; holes were dug manually. From the 1850s gun powder was used
and the mining time was shortened dramatically.
Today, diamond-tipped drilling machines and heat lances are used.
The video clip below gives you an idea of the actual mining process.
 
 
The location of the Tsukuba Mountain stonemasons  and techniques and how to quarry the rock
 
 
The view from Makabe city to the quarry at Tsukuba Mountain
   
   
  A closer view of the quarry
   
 
 
 
 
Lanterns and hand washing bowls have always been essential accessories for castles and temples,
therefore, over time, the forms of these stone items have developed into today’s perfectly designed
shapes. The below picture shows Mr. Gunji, who keeps a book showing the historical designs of
many types of lanterns. All stonemasons behind the products shown on this page went through a
training period lasting several years and are obliged to follow a variety of traditional design rules.
 
 
 
This drawing gives you an idea about the details of a perfectly designed lantern.
Even the procedure of how to set up the lantern is described in detail.
Actually, this book was printed in the 1950s, the first edition is dated 1924.

The following video clips explain the carving and finishing technologies as of today.

 
 
Introduction to several techniques and tools for stone carving
 
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
 
As you can see from these video clips, this kind of stone carving is very sophisticated due to the
difficulty in forming the shapes. Besides an artist’s skill he/she will also need suitable material –
this is found here in the Makabe area. Granite lacks an internal structure (small grain size), making
it very strong and ideal for cutting into small portions. Besides this, the coloring is very even:
the base is a white granite mixed with black granite colored grains. These characteristics are what
make Makabe granite so famous, so popular and allow for such high-quality sculptures showing
so many fine structures.